Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action

by George Perkins Marsh

Book Overview

George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature was the first book to attack the American myth of the superabundance and the inexhaustibility of the earth. It was, as Lewis Mumford said, the fountainhead of the conservation movement, and few books since have had such an influence on the way men view and use land. It is worth reading after a hundred years, Mr. Lowenthal points out, not only because it taught important lessons in its day, but also because...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674544528
• ISBN13: 9780674544529
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 504 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Human Agency and Landscape Alteration

Although a dipolmat by profession, Marsh was the first environmentalist to describe the interrelationships between environment and culture. Today he is best remembered for his key work, "Man and Nature." In that classic work, he was the first to suggest that human agency constituted a major element in landscape change. The accepted view held by prominent geographers and geologists of his day was that the physical aspects of the earth were entirely the result of natural process and phenomena, including topography, geological materials, erosion, weathering, climate, etc. Before Marsh, no one had ever thought to study the earth in ways that it was changed by human actions. After his pioneering work, no serious environmentalist or geoscientist can afford to overlook the consequences of those actions on the land. A well-read copy of this book belongs in the personal library of every earth scientist, environmentalist, and conservationist. Marsh's book is a MUST READ for anyone concerned about what people are doing to the earth.

A Very Modern Environmentalist, Writing in 1864!!!

In 1864, George P. Marsh explained how civilizations create ecological disasters. His central thesis is that cutting down forests desrupts otherwise stable hydrological cycles, thereby causing erosion and degrading plant and animal habitats. The book is vaste, creative and detailed. An American from Vermont, Marsh also lived in Turkey and Italy, and pursued numerous careers, as diplomat, lawyer, businessman, and professor. His intense love of language and history merged with direct obersvations here and abroad to generate a remarkable breadth of knowlegde and a strong desire to communicate. In Man and Nature, Marsh is not only inspired, he is also happy to digress, particularly in the abundant footnotes.

Environmental Knowledge

The depth of information provided in this remarkable book trasncends the test of time.

Enlightened analysis concerning Humankind's destructivness.

Originally published in 1864, Marsh explains in wonderful detail the consequences of humankind's manipulation of earth's resources. Truly an enlightened thinker.